Chapter 6 Chapter 6 A Busy Day (Part 2)
Gong Zhili planned to row a boat to the forest opposite the house to find something, whether it was food or something useful.
She first returned home, unloaded the backpack in the kitchen, put the wild fruits, wild garlic, dandelions and duck eggs she had picked in the kitchen, held the cup of water and drank it, and walked quietly to the living room. As a result, the two children she thought would sleep in the bedroom were lying in the living room, sleeping crookedly on the floor.
She looked at the exceptionally clean floor, the small buckets in the hands of the two children, and the rags hanging on the edges of the buckets. What else was there to not understand?
There are several big trees around the house that are much taller than the house, and there is a bamboo forest behind the house. At this time, the sunlight is blocked by the shadows of the trees, casting a large area of shade in the living room. Occasionally, a mountain breeze blows, bringing a hint of coolness.
The two children were sleeping very soundly, and Gong Zhili didn't plan to wake them up. She just put two pieces of clothes on them and went out again. To be honest, the village chief didn't prepare any mattresses, so when all the villagers went home for lunch and rest in the middle of the day, she knocked on the village chief's door again.
The village chief saw that the witch, who was still noble and elegant in the morning, was standing at the door at noon with a sickle in her hand and a bamboo basket on her back. He politely handed over another shopping list.
The village chief suppressed his inner uneasiness, quickly scanned the list, and said respectfully, "We will prepare it and send it tonight."
Gong Zhili nodded, then asked, "Are there any extra fishing rods in the village?" If not, fishing line will do.
The village chief immediately understood: "If you need it, we will send it to you with other items in the evening."
He thought to himself: It seems that the witch wants to have a thorough "communication" with the land. I should prepare a set of commonly used tools for farmers for her, right?
But if the witch goes fishing herself, will the fish bite the bait on their own?
I really want to go and have a look.
Gong Zhili: "Thank you."
The village chief glanced at the tattered straw hat she took out of the backpack and asked, "Shall I give you a new one?"
Gong Zhili smiled, her porcelain-white skin gleaming with a cold shimmer like frost and snow in this scorching heat. She said, "It's just a decoration."
The village chief hesitated, not daring to look directly into her peridot pupils that were soaked in cold spring water.
Gong Zhili was walking in the shadows of the trees, wearing a straw hat that was better than nothing.
She came to the small pier north of the village, took off her backpack, got on the small boat, put her hands into the cool lake water and gently waved them, trying to call on the water to push the boat.
The calm water responded to her and pushed the boat to the other side according to her wishes.
Very convenient.
Gong Zhili took her hands out of the water and felt the comfort of the water vapor mixed with the breeze blowing on her face.
Soon the boat arrived at the shore. She tied the boat to the dock on the other side and went up the mountain along the path that the villagers usually walked on.
The mountain was quiet. Gong Zhili walked a few steps with a sickle and found that the path was almost covered by fast-growing grass and trees, so he simply started to use the sickle to clear a path.
As she was chopping, Gong Zhili discovered that there were some yellow flowers mixed in with the branches and leaves at her feet. She picked them up, smelled them, and confirmed that they were wild chrysanthemums.
As she squatted, the wooden handle of her sickle tapped lightly on a stone, startling a blue-winged butterfly. The moment her left hand grasped the flower branch, a grassy aroma mixed with a bitter medicinal fragrance filled the air. Her fingertips touched the hairy stems, and with a slight force, she broke the stems and plucked a small cluster of wild chrysanthemums.
The wild chrysanthemums in the basket piled up. She hooked the branches with a sickle, picked off a lot of large leaves and put them on top of the wild chrysanthemums, then stood up and continued forward.
Along the way, they discovered wild chestnut trees and even wild kiwi trees. The fruits were too full, but when Gong Zhili picked some and tasted them, he found that they were still a bit sour.
Gong Zhili marked a few locations again and decided to pick fruits later. Maybe he could even transplant the chestnut trees and wild kiwis to the orchard that was about to be abandoned.
She thought of the shabby orchard with only one apple tree and one persimmon tree, and continued to make a list in her mind: she could plant more fruit trees, transplant them or buy seedlings, or if that didn't work, she could start from seeds, and in three to five years she would be able to eat her own fruit.
Before you achieve fruit freedom, you can go up the mountain to look for it more often.
She bent down and continued searching along the gap cleared by the sickle, and soon found another familiar plant - wild onion, and there was more than just a small piece. She used the sickle to clear away the vines entangled in the bushes and tree trunks, and found a whole piece of wild onion below.
This time, the sickle became a mattock, the blade wedging into the moist humus. With a twist of her wrist, she lifted the entire patch of turf. The white bulbs, covered in mud, huddled together like a string of subterranean pearls. She ran her index finger along the base of the onions, sending rotten leaves and chunks of earth tumbling down. As she picked, she tried to keep the wild onions intact, determined to transplant them to the terraced fields below the house.
It would be great if there were chickens laying eggs now. Eggs and wild onions are a perfect match and can whet one's appetite at any time. The only thing that needs to be questioned is her cooking skills, but I picked up duck eggs today, which may be able to serve as a substitute.
Gong Zhili straightened up and took a deep breath. Her nostrils were filled with the astringent taste of grass juice gushing from broken branches and leaves, as well as the faint fragrance of an unknown flower. Perhaps there were many bamboos on the mountain. She could smell the bitter taste of bamboo leaves on the breeze...
There were too many wild onions in the backpack. When Gong Zhili put it on her back again, she could only smell the unique spicy fragrance of the wild onions. Suddenly, she smelled this smell and couldn't help sneezing.
As the voice fell, there was a noise above her head. Gong Zhili reacted quickly and immediately grabbed the vine that she had cut off in front of her and swung it upwards. The vine shook violently, sprouted branches, and stabbed towards the direction identified by its owner!
The broken vine completely changed its properties and tightly wrapped around the prey in the forest with great flexibility. Gong Zhili could clearly see from the gaps in the vines that it was a blue-gray snake with a pale yellow belly. Without hesitation, he shook his wrist again, and the vine immediately tightened the snake's body. The skin now became as cold and hard as metal, squeezing the poor green snake and forcing it to open its mouth, dislocating its bones and cracking its scales. Snake blood oozed out from the densely wrapped vines. In just a few breaths, Gong Zhili completed the strangulation.
After making sure the green snake was dead, she tied it up with vines and hung it next to the backpack.
She looked calm on the surface, but she was actually surprised in her heart: there would be real meat to eat in the evening!
Come to think of it, if someone passed by, this kind of reptile would probably stay away from them... She looked up and found, not surprisingly, a bird's nest there, which probably contained bird eggs.
——But she already has wild duck eggs today, so forget it for now.
As for why the green snake didn't notice her existence, Gong Zhili quickly figured out the reason. Since she was the "land god", all creatures within this range would regard her as part of the village and part of nature, and of course would not be overly wary of her.
A flash of inspiration came to her mind, and she quickly grasped this point, quickly recalling the scenes of her meetings with the village chief over the past two days.
So that’s it…So that’s it!
The village already belongs to her completely. Maybe no matter what she looks like, she will not feel out of place in their eyes. The sense of incongruity that she felt when her height changed at that moment may almost disappear after one night!
And she was able to use her own biometrics to unlock her phone, which shows that this applies to all electronic devices in the village.
Gong Zhili flipped his palm, and the blood-stained soil began to churn. As the last trace of blood was consumed, the churning earth gradually calmed down. The original dark red soil disappeared, replaced by fresh, dark brown soil. The soil was soft and moist, exuding vitality.
This is...
Gong Zhili quickly recovered from this force and continued to move into the mountains.
She hadn't achieved her main purpose for going into the mountains this time, so she couldn't go back.
September is the season for picking hairy straw mushrooms. At this time, the hairy straw mushrooms are fresh and tender, and the pine mushrooms are fleshy and thick. They are also suitable for making soup or scrambled eggs. If you don’t have time to eat them all, you can dry them.
It took a long time just to pick mushrooms. It was not until dark that Gong Zhili, worried that the two children would be worried at home, walked down the mountain with a full basket of harvest on his back.
When she rushed back home, the sky was already filled with sunset glow. She put her things on the wooden corridor outside the north gate and found that the light in the house was dim. She called out, "Nanako, Mimiko, turn on the lights in the living room."
The lights in the living room were quickly turned on, and the footsteps of two children approached. When they saw her, they started chattering.
"Someone just dropped off a lot of stuff at the door."
"We brought in the fishing rods." "And a suitcase."
"We can't move the bedding."
"But we did keep the birds and bugs away!"
Gong Zhili entered the living room carrying a backpack. Nanako was startled by the green snake hanging next to the backpack and let out a half-scream, but she swallowed the rest of the sound back.
Mimiko was so scared that she hid behind her sisters.
Gong Zhili realized it later and said, "Ah, I killed this one. Do you like snake meat? It should taste good."
Hearing that the snake was dead, Nanako blushed for her timid scream and immediately said, "I'll eat it."
Mimiko was a little hesitant, but since Nanako agreed, she nodded as well.
Gong Zhili took them to the kitchen and found that the wild vegetables and fruits he had placed at home at noon had all been washed and carefully put on plates and covered with bowls.
"You're doing great," Gong Zhili praised them generously. She then untied the vines and placed the snake in a separate basin. She said to them, "Just like you did with the wild vegetables at noon, wash the wild onions in the basket and rinse the wild chrysanthemums with water to remove any dust and broken branches. Then I'll teach you how to process the mushrooms."
She found a few lint-free brushes in the cupboard and taught them to gently scrub away the dirt and impurities on the mushrooms, then quickly rinse them with water. The two children learned quickly, so while they were busy working, she went to the west door to bring in the bedding. She also broke off a branch of rose vine.
She returned to the bedroom, but found that if she placed two beds side by side in the bedroom, the gap in the middle would be very narrow, and there would be no room if she wanted to put something like a cabinet or a dressing table.
After thinking for a while, she took the vines from the kitchen and tied the rose branches to the end of the bed with the vines. She held the rose branches and urged them to grow, causing them to grow roots downwards and entangle with the wooden bed she slept on last night. Then they grew upwards in mid-air to weave a new bed, and then the roots hung down from the other foot of the bed and tightly entangled with the bedposts as support.
The vines burst into dense branches and leaves, entwined to form steps for climbing to the upper floors, and then quickly withered and turned into wood.
The broken rose branches and vines seemed to have a limited ability to withstand force, and after forming this bunk bed, they could no longer be deformed.
I should find a way to make two proper beds in the future.
Gong Zhili spread the bedding and slept on the upper bunk, while the two children, who were smaller, slept on the lower bunk.
The new bedding prepared by the village chief had probably been dried in the sun in a hurry. The mattress she made yesterday with straw and simple bedding was completely incomparable to these.
She tied up the straw and folded the old mattress and put it in the space under the steps of the bunk bed.
Then she spread out the six large suitcases and sorted the items inside. Then she found that in addition to the bed, she also needed to build some cabinets as soon as possible.
She didn't plan to use the same method to make furniture again. This way of using power that only outputs but does not input is definitely not the best option.
She will ask if there is a carpenter in the village tomorrow. If not, she feels that she can figure it out by herself. When it comes to carpentry, suitable tools are indispensable. It seems that there is one more thing to do tomorrow: clean the warehouse and find tools.
Because there was no wardrobe or hangers, her clothes and the children's clothes were placed in a separate suitcase.
After tidying up her belongings and the room, she went to the kitchen where the two children were still carefully handling the delicate mushrooms.
Gong Zhili did not rush them and took the snake to the well to process it. She chopped off the snake's head completely according to her body memory, skillfully removed the internal organs, peeled off the snake's gallbladder, and even peeled the snake's skin smoothly, not to mention cutting the snake meat evenly.
She used the pumped-out well water to wash away the marks on the stone slabs—the water flowed through the orchard along the canal and into the lake. She had observed the fish in the lake and was sure they were worth fishing for.
Facing the snake meat in the basin, Gong Zhili couldn't help but be stunned: How did she end up in this situation when she knew so many things and was so strong?
The author has something to say:
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Zhili's origin is not sad (should be) This is also my first time trying to write about farming and food. I have only played many infrastructure games before. So it is normal to find that the author is talking about it on paper.
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